印度に於ける論證學の性格

Abstract

The science of reasoning (Nyāya-vidyā or Nyāyaçāstra) in India is a syllogism which is composed of five parts or members (avayava) : Proposition (pratijñā), Reason (hetu), Exemplification (udāharana), Application (upanaya) and Conclusion (nigamana) ; and in this syllogism should be employed together, so asserts Nyāya-bhāsya, the four means of Knowledge : Perception (pratyaksa), Inference (anumāna), Comparison (upamāna)and Verbal Testimony(çabda). The Proposition is verbal testimony, the Reason is inference, the Exemplification is perception, the Application is comparison, while the Conclusion, indicates the competency of the four means cohering to one another for the attainment of knowledge. Accordingly the present writer explains that the Indian science of reasoning starting with Verbal Testimony is not a pure logical process as understood in the West. Next comes the writer to the point that the science of reasoning should comprise the intuitive perception of the soul (ātmasāksātkāra). On the one hand, it is to be remembered that, in the Nyāya-sūtra, Verbal Testimony is defined as “a Trustworthy Person's statements”. This Trustworthy Person (āpta) is, according to the Nyāya-bhāsya, a liberated person who has realized Dharma (=ātman or the soul=tattva or the truth) and has mercy to help living beings to get their final liberation. In view of these characteristics of the Trustworthy Person, one has to recognize that the science of reasoning starting with Verbal Testimony has to end in the intuitive perception of the soul. On the other hand, the Nyāya school bases itself on the doctrine that the validity of knowledge should be proved from something else than the knowledge itself (paratahprāmāmya). Thus the science of reasoning, in order that its valtdity may be proved, should not remain a mere syllogism. These characteristics of a Trustworthy Person as well as the doctrine of partahprāmānya demand the science of reasoning which starts with Verbal Testimony to develope into the intuitive perception of the soul. That the science of reasoning develops into the intuitive perception of the soul points to the fact that this reasoning enlarges its own contents. This corresponds to the statement in the Nyāya-bhāsya that in the Nyāya-vidyā should be contained the Science of the Soul (ātma-vidyā). This Science of the Soul aims at the attainment of emancipation by means of the true knowledge of the twelve objects that fall under the category of the ‘objects of knowledge (prameya)', and the true knowledge finds its final state in the intuitive perception of the soul. Therefore, Anviksiki (philosophy), the science of reasoning in the widest sense of the term, which contains the Science of the Soul, is a science that makes the Twelve Objects of Knowledge items of its investigation, and has a structure in which one may start with the Verbal Testimony and by means of a syllogism end in the intuitive perception of the soul.